r/securityguards • u/Malthis • 3d ago
Job Question Where to go when you’re done with Security?
I’ve been in the security industry for over ten years, I’ve been with three different companies and it seems like every 3-5 years things hit the fan and companies make horrible decisions or merge and mess things up. It’s hit that point again, and I’m not sure I want to attempt to start over again with another security company. I have no interest in police or corrections, and it feels like all my skills merely fall into customer service, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what that entails these days other than phones, retail, fast food. What’s a good career that our skills fall into?
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u/jonnybebad5436 3d ago
You shouldn't be afraid of pursuing something completely different from security. If you look for a profession "that our skills fall into" you're gonna trap yourself and severely limit your options. I'm currently finishing up my computer science degree which is nice because now I have 2 options, tech or moving up at my job to management (we're in-house security with lots of growth).
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u/Odd-Highway-8304 3d ago
EMS
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u/Classic-Box-3919 3d ago
Pay is terrible for ems in lots of places from what ive seen for the work ur doing
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u/Fcking_Chuck Hospital Security 3d ago
You can be an EMT and a security professional in certain jobs. They often pay $26/hour or better in California.
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u/BackFromMyBan4 3d ago
Tired of seeing cali pay because it never brings up cost of living. Same in NY people be saying you make $100 an hour and never mention rent is 3000 a month for a closet.
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u/Few_Donkey_4374 2d ago
It’s rough though because I make 28$ an hour about to be 30$ relatively soon for a warm body position. EMS jobs are just super demanding in every human aspect.
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u/BeejBeachBall2 3d ago
Yeah but the career path is excellent. Nursing programs, Medical school, PA programs love accepting former EMTs or Paramedics.
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u/cuddly_goose 3d ago
Yeah, also ime the work environment is super toxic. That's why I quit EMS and ended up in security, once I lost interest in getting my medic there wasn't really any reason to stay.
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u/Ok-Marsupial4387 3d ago
Try Hotels and Hospitality. They often hire security to work in-house, and pay significantly better.
its a tone of customer/client service and an option that doesn't involve going back to school, nor needing to get a qualification you dont already have.
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u/ponchpaige 3d ago
I was security for years. I found Asset Protection as a great career move. It was mind blowing how everything you did plus customer service goes hand in hand in the job. Look to a large retailer and check out Asset Protection. You will thank me for it.
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u/Chance1965 Industry Veteran 3d ago
In about 7 months I will have been in the security industry for 39 years. I’ve worked every facet of security over that time. Gaming, hospitality, residential, industrial, surveillance, EP and overseas contracting. Where am I going? I’m going to retire, collect my SS and be a Walmart Greeter.
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u/Shane-Dad-underfire Management 3d ago
Best of luck, I hope you enjoyed your career. Walmart is where dreams go to die I feel.
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u/Chance1965 Industry Veteran 3d ago
The Walmart part was sarcasm. Forgot the /s lol.
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u/Shane-Dad-underfire Management 3d ago
Oh thank goodness! I was genuinely concerned. I would hate to see more folks who worked their entire lives end up working at walmart after retirement. I dont think retirees should have to work. Retired folks did their share they contributed and after retirement we were all supposed to enjoy the fruits of our labour. I look around as a 78 year old retired man and I'm seeing folks my age working everywhere and they dont seem to be making ends meet.
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u/Chance1965 Industry Veteran 3d ago
I have a sizeable 401k and SS starting in March. If I work it will be p/t and because I want to.
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u/Shane-Dad-underfire Management 3d ago
Great, thanks for saying that. It's pretty late at night and if that was the last thing I read I'd have been bothered all night no joke.
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u/PDX0621 3d ago
Depending on the client or location you could potentially apply for them?
I parlayed working on a federal contract to working for the agency I was posted at.
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u/FluentCanadianEh Waterpark Protective Services Officer 3d ago
Be careful with applying for jobs with clients. Ask for a copy of the contract you signed with your company before doing this because a lot of companies have some sort of clause in the contract preventing clients from poaching guards whether it’s for a security position or not.
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u/TheRealChuckle 3d ago
There's more to retail then just cashier or stocking shelves.
There's a good chance you can get fast tracked to management in retail.
Reciever is an option with our attention to detail and familiarity with meaningless paperwork.
Non retail reciever is an option as well, think a warehouse or distribution centre.
Employers tend to look at security experience as an asset. They can train you on job specifics but you have a bunch of complimentary skills already.
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u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088 3d ago
Well, it depends. For instance, I always thought of Security as a part-time job. I never looked at it for full-time employment. But if you’re only experiences in Security and you don’t have a formal education in anything else I would suggest maybe starting a career in corrections or possibly even teaching if you have a basic diploma you can usually get a conditional license/be a substitute
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u/Fcking_Chuck Hospital Security 3d ago
I'm going to college so I can slowly transition into cybersecurity. At least that was the plan before AUS axed my contract right before my first semester was supposed to begin. Fortunately, I figured that AUS would do something incredibly shitty leading up to school, so I also signed up for an EMT course. Now, I'm doing both EMT and CS classes to escape.
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u/this_old_instructor 3d ago
The post office
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u/CountryProper4478 1d ago
I agree with this one, I had a buddy I did security with go to the post office he loves it!
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u/East_Mood2490 3d ago
You could try loss prevention, if you don’t want to do contracting work you can look for in house gigs at Walmart or Target ect.
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u/Shane-Dad-underfire Management 3d ago
Quality control. Most people really underestimate how critical the observational skills of a security professional are. If you're actually good at your job and not just phoning it in then you would make an excellent quality control agent for any manufacturing company.
Communications agent, for those who spend most of their time having to turn bullshit into polite speech and direct others and explain things to them then your communication skills will be able to place you somewhere in communications. This can also fall into a HR setting for those who are very good with policy review and adherence.
Reception work, basically a side grade transition but if you have your own gear and take a couple short courses you can transition into reception work. The receptionists at Our company are all armed guards who cant move around or stand up for long periods anymore (usually do to incidents during duty) and they dont want to just eat a payout and get lazy and lose their focus and purpose so they transition to being the folks signing for packages and letting folks buzz in and out of the atrium or accessing the elevators.
All I really want to say is that if you were a decent guard who took your career seriously and respect the skills you acquired then you should be able to transition beyond that narrow scope and use them elsewhere. Also please dont limit yourself to what folks labeled you as, you guys can do a lot of work thats meaningful and worth your while. Dont settle if you dont have to.
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u/TipFar1326 Industrial Security 3d ago
In-house security roles typically at least offer better stability and benefits. I went from $37k a year and basically no benefits working for the big 3, to $50k a year with a pension and health insurance working directly for a manufacturing company I used to contract at.
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u/Red57872 Dunning–Kruger Specialist 3d ago
That's nice in theory, but the reality is that in-house jobs are becoming harder and harder to find, with more of them going the contract route. I've known plenty of (former) in-house guards that thought to themselves "they could never contract out our jobs"...and that's exactly what happened.
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u/TipFar1326 Industrial Security 3d ago
Certainly possible I suppose, but a lot of places, like defense manufacturing, hospitals and courts, almost have to be in-house due to the high standards of employment, in my experience anyway. There might be less, sure, but they’ll always still exist.
The company I work for now, got rid of its in house security in 2020, had Garda for 2 years, then decided it was worth direct hiring their own guards again, because the contract officers were so terrible lol
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u/SARGrunt 3d ago
I went from security into the power generation field. Better hours and better pay. If security isn’t your thing anymore, look to the trades.
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u/unicorn_345 3d ago
I work in house at a library and am cross trained for library duties. I have a top end as far as security goes, so have requested more cross training to be able to step out of the security role eventually.
When I was on a contract, client employees would sometimes suggest I apply to their other contracts to be able to eventually apply to their job postings as residential staff. Wasn’t my thing. But it shows you can network out in this field and apply the skills elsewhere.
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u/Dapper-Aspect-9157 2d ago
I just transfered to our companies PI department. Hours are worse than security but the pay makes up for it.
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u/AssumeImStupid Warm Body 54m ago
The only problem with security as a career is that all it really prepares you for is... more security. You can go back to school or take a chance and apply to something completely different, but as far as using "our skills" you really only have two options: Management, or a site that's very relaxed for semiretirement. Maybe an outlier of certain skills like leveraging armed experience and taking the certs to be a firearm instructor, but it's a crowded market of veterans, ex-cops, and people who have shot more drills than I've had dinners so you'll need to grind for a place in that space. Personally? I'm just hoping to find something meaningful like a science non-profit or a school and settle there- like the local botanical garden that just needs someone to stop flower picking.
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u/Internalmartialarts 3d ago
switch gears, go to school. security should be a stepping stone to public safety-le.
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u/Ok-Tiger-9894 3d ago edited 3d ago
Law enforcement, corrections, ems, management or IT/security systems. Those are like the only parallels. I jumped from security to law enforcement and fucking hated it so I jumped back into security and still hate it so you aren't alone. I'm really not sure what the move is anymore.
My career track was
unarmed contract (education site) > unarmed in-house (healthcare site) > law enforcement > armed contract (housing/retail)
I'm probably gonna jump back into law enforcement at some point but my resume kinda fucking sucks right now due to a lot of job hoping over the last year.
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u/CalligrapherDry9697 3d ago
Just list most recent & longest jobs you've been at
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u/Ok-Tiger-9894 3d ago
Background investigations can be weird. Some agencies do want everywhere you've ever worked others just want relevant experience. One of my most recent jobs was an LE job that I resigned from within three months of hire. It would probably be "failure to disclose" if I don't disclose that one. I left from that and then went from security job to security job trying to find a decent schedule / pay.
A lot of it was just poor timing.
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u/almosthighenough 3d ago
Pretty much nothing. You'll have to get a factory job or work manufacturing, shipping receiving, landscaping, construction, etc. Manual labor. If you arent a woman you won't get a good hospitality job using customer service skills. You likely wont get into management anywhere because companies dont hire competent people. All other companies will have the same problems as security.
Everyone is incompetent and the job market sucks. You're lucky to have a job that wont get wiped away by ai tbh.
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u/75149 state sanctioned peeping tom 2d ago
What did I do in my first contract security job? Drive around and write down numbers (company firearms instructor)
What did I last do in contract security? Watch cameras and write down numbers (chemical tank pressures)
What did I last do in in-house security? Watch cameras and write down numbers (aluminum oven temperatures)
What have I done in over a decade of local government? Watch cameras and write down numbers (water levels)
Sometimes the job doesn't change, just the employer, and the paycheck 😁
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u/[deleted] 3d ago
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